Child sex abuse inquiry hears from Christian Brothers

Updated
May 03, 2013 13:41:00

The Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has been told the first alleged instance of abuse by a Christian Brother in Victoria was in 1934, but it wasn't reported until 65 years later. The inquiry has been hearing testimony this morning from the Christian Brothers religious order. It ran some of the institutions where abuse was reported in Victoria, including St Alipius Primary School in Ballarat, and St Vincent's orphanage.

ASHLEY HALL: The Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has heard that the first alleged instance of abuse in that state by a Christian Brother was in 1934, though it wasn't reported for 65 years.

The inquiry has been hearing this morning from the Christian Brothers religious order.

The order ran some of the institutions where abuse has been reported including at St Alipius Primary School in Ballarat and at St Vincent's orphanage.

Madeleine Morris has been monitoring the inquiry and she joins us now from Melbourne.

Madeleine, much of the questioning this morning related to whether the Christian Brothers had covered up for a number of paedophile brothers who worked in its institutions in Victoria. Just remind us, first of all, about who some of those brothers were.

MADELEINE MORRIS: Particularly of concern this morning Ashley, were four brothers who are known paedophiles, now known, who all worked at St Alipius Primary School at different times in the '60s and the '70s. They were Brother Robert Best, who's currently serving time for abuse, Brother Fitzgerald, Brother Dowel and Brother Farrell. Also a Christian Brother was Father Gerald Ridsdale who has also been convicted of abuse and served a number of years in jail although he wasn't really referred to in proceedings today.

Now speaking for the Christian Brothers was Brother Julian McDonald. He's the deputy province leader of the province of Oceania which includes Australia and from the outset he was clear in acknowledging the fault of the order in dealing with its paedophile brothers.

JULIAN MCDONALD: It is true that there was some mistakes made and they've had devastating consequences on victims. I cannot defend and I will not try to defend the indefensible.

MADELEINE MORRIS: He repeated that statement many times but he would not admit that there had been any deliberate organisational cover up despite repeated questionings and indeed there were laughter and jeers from the gallery when he said at one stage he could see in the public's eyes how that could be what it appeared to be.

He said the leadership at that time was not trained to know what paedophilic behaviour was, although he admitted that two known complaints about, of abuse about two brothers were dealt with only by a reprimand. He described that as tragic and he said that he saw that as a moral failure.

Father McDonald tried to explain the culture that surrounded abuse by brothers at the time by giving what he called anecdotal evidence of how the matters were dealt with.

JULIAN MCDONALD: Parents turned up at the door of the Brothers house, wanted to see the community leader or the principal of the school and said remove so and so because he's done this to my son or we'll get the police and there were times when the police turned up and said remove so and so or we'll charge him.

Now that simply reflects a culture that existed that gave special privilege, and it shouldn't have, to people in religious life and in priesthood.

ASHLEY HALL: That's Brother Julian McDonald and Madeleine, what sort of indication has there been about the extent of the complaints made against the order?

MADELEINE MORRIS: What was revealed today was that there have been 266 complainants who have come forward against the order. Forty of those have fallen away and certainly not all of those have resulted in convictions.

Interestingly, as you said in your introduction, their first incident that has come to light was perpetuated in 1934 although that didn't come to light until 2000 and just interestingly in the last 15 minutes or so Ashley, - it's really run way over time, it was supposed to finish at midday - it's been admitted that Brother Best will not come out of the Christian Brothers order when he comes out of jail.

The order has also admitted to hiring private investigators to spy on alleged victims in the 1990s and Brother Julian McDonald, who we heard from just then, has just in the last five minutes broken down in tears as he apologised for the transgressions of his order.

ASHLEY HALL: Madeleine Morris, thanks for keeping an eye on that in Melbourne.